Ruddock backs ID card review

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Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says the federal government
would be "complacent" to rule out introducing a national
identification card, despite personally rejecting the idea just
days ago.

Addressing the NSW Liberal Party's State Council at Sydney
Olympic Park today, Mr Ruddock said the government was re-examining
Australia's counter-terrorism measures after the London Underground
bombing attacks.

"We've put everything on the table again," Mr Ruddock said.

"We're asking the questions: Are there any weaknesses in our
arrangements? Are there any lessons to be learned from what has
happened in the United Kingdom and the United States and France? Do
they have powers within their agencies that we have a not given
ours?

"The prime minister ... made it clear yesterday that we would be
examining the identity issues afresh as well, and the question of
whether or not there should be a national identifier.

"It's something we will be examining ... the government cannot
afford to be complacent."

Today's statements represent a change of heart for Mr Ruddock,
who last Tuesday dismissed the idea of a national ID card.

On July 12, Mr Ruddock told reporters in Canberra: "We made it
very clear that we're not about establishing a national identity
card, but we do want to improve the efficiency of the databases we
hold."

And at a security conference in Sydney on June 29, he said a
national ID card could actually make it easier for criminals
wanting to create false identities because they would only need to
falsify a single document.

Prime Minister John Howard has said he would reconsider a
national identity card, despite opposing Labor's Australia Card
proposal in the 1980s.

"I, as you all know, was opposed to the Australia Card, but that
was 17, 18 years ago," he told reporters in Washington today.

"The world is very, very different since then and maybe this is
one of the things that is needed to be added to our armoury -
maybe."

During his speech to Liberal Party faithful today, Mr Ruddock
also defended the government's national terrorism hotline against
widespread ridicule, saying that calls to the number had helped
intelligence agencies.

If information passed on from the public via the hotline helped
prevent a terrorist attack in Australia, the hotline had served its
purpose, he said.